By processes unspeakable and dark,
Restores the wonders of its earliest form.
Yates’s Translation.
MACARIUS, CL., A. D. 373.
This author gives us an additional proof (Homil. 17, § 9,) that the use of silken clothing was characteristic of dissolute women.
JEROME, CL., A. D. 378.
This great author mentions silk in numerous passages.
In his translation of Ezekiel xxvii. he has supposed silk (sericum) to be an article of Syrian and Phœnician traffic as early as the time of that prophet.
In his beautiful and interesting Epistle to Læta on the Education of her Daughter (Opp. Paris, 1546, tom. i. p. 20. C.), he says:
Let her learn also to spin wool, to hold the distaff, to place the basket in her bosom, to twirl the spindle, to draw the threads with her thumb. Let her despise the webs of silk-worms, the fleeces of the Seres, and gold beaten into threads. Let her prepare such garments as may dispel cold, not expose the body naked, even when it is clothed. Instead of gems and silk, let her love the sacred books, &c.